Raimondo, Electric Boat unveil workforce development plan updates

GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO, second from left, tours the welding teaching area at New England Institute of Technology's Warwick campus, which was the site of a press conference releasing more details about a new program to train workers for General Dynamics Electric Boat's operations in Rhode Island and Connecticut. / COURTESY NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO, second from left, tours the welding teaching area at New England Institute of Technology's Warwick campus, which was the site of a press conference releasing more details about a new program to train workers for General Dynamics Electric Boat's operations in Rhode Island and Connecticut. / COURTESY NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

WARWICK – The state’s workforce development partnership with Electric Boat, Pipelines to Manufacturing Careers in Ship Building, will feature post-hiring training opportunities through the New England Institute of Technology, Community College of Rhode Island and Westerly Higher Education and Job Skills Center, creating new opportunities for those interested in a marine trades career Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced Tuesday at NEIT.

Raimondo said she and Electric Boat have been working together for a year to create the program to help students build the skills necessary to pursue “careers that pay.”

She added: “Rhode Island businesses – now and in the future – need a talent pool of highly-skilled graduates ready to step into challenging careers. … I am pleased that Electric Boat has once again stepped forward to help Rhode Island students. They will support instruction in career-technical centers and schools, provide paid student internships on site, and work with their partners who are seeking qualified workers to offer students jobs at Electric Boat upon graduation.”

NEIT and the new Westerly center, what EB is calling “finishing schools,” will feature post-hiring training for submarine maritime trades. The Westerly program will begin in January 2017.

- Advertisement -

In addition, NEIT’s capacity will be increased by moving the school’s Ship Building and Advance Manufacturing Institute from the Post Road location in Warwick across town to the Access Road campus.

CCRI’s Westerly satellite campus and the town’s job skills center will partner to offer training in maritime sheet metal, pipefitting and electrical programs.

To further incentivize potential students, candidates who qualify will be placed on EB’s payroll before receiving training at NEIT or CCRI through a pilot training model which began in May. EB already has hired 28 employees through this scheme, which was facilitated by the $369,500 Real Jobs Rhode Island sector plan – the largest grant awarded through the program, according to the governor’s office.

In what the state is calling, “one of the biggest planned hiring efforts in [Rhode Island] history,” EB will recruit from three major sources – veterans, students, and the unemployed and underemployed – to create a skilled workforce pipeline for their increased hiring needs beginning in 2020 to meet the demand of the Ohio Class Replacement project.

As part of the program, DLT staff will promote the opportunity to the roughly 1,600 veterans who monthly come into the four one-stop job centers that agency runs. In addition, EB will make an outreach effort of its own.

The R.I. Department of Education has committed to publicize the program through the career and technical schools as well as high schools.

And finally, a new public-private partnership, Skills for Rhode Island’s Future, modeled on Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, will work with the DLT and EB as well as CVS Health and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce to connect with the state’s unemployed and underemployed. This piece of the effort launches in roughly a month, according to a DLT spokesman.

Jeffrey S. Geiger, EB president, said the program will provide the company with the skilled workforce it will need in the near future.

He added: “They’ll have the skills and tools they’ll need to perform effectively at their jobs, as well as the means to take on future professional opportunities that offer greater challenges and rewards.”

No posts to display